1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and systems of music performing and composition, specifically to methods and systems for playing, creating, composing, displaying, and editing music data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Music composition provides an opportunity for creative expression. People have taken some advantage of this opportunity from the beginning of recorded time. Through music composition we express our excitement, sorrow, joy, devotion, patriotism, love, delight, etc. Many of our favorite songs are a culmination of significant historical events and thereby represent an expression of history. Accordingly, musical composition has been and continues to be an important human endeavor.
While bare-bones musical composition is available to anybody with a memory and a rhythm making device, expression is easier with tools and is more easily understood with a language. Accordingly, various musical notations have been developed over time to help us record and communicate our expressions. Further, many tools have been developed to further automate or otherwise facilitate musical composition.
In particular, with the advent of the computer, musical notation software was developed to assist in writing music. These packages have generally included some assistance in selecting note pitch and timing for a plurality of notes and associating them together as a song. Electronics and computer-related technologies such as MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) have been increasingly applied to musical instrument over the years; thus greatly enhancing the ability to create, edit, and play musical compositions.
While such technology has greatly enhanced the ability to create, play, and store music compositions, many of the current systems and methods utilizing these technologies are complex, expensive, and may require a user to have substantial musical experience and training. Additionally, while some systems and methods are adept and proficient in one area of music composition, those same systems and methods may be inadequate in other areas. For example, one system may excel in playing and recording music compositions, while being inadequate and inept in areas of creating and editing music compositions, and vice versa. Therefore, people have continually worked to produce different and/or better systems and methods of enhancing musical composition. Examples include but are not limited to the references described below, which references are incorporated by reference herein:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,417,438, issued to Haruyama et al., discloses a general transposition setting device for setting a transposition for an entire musical instrument, there is also provided an automatic-performance transposition setting device for optionally setting a transposition value for automatic performance. Automatic performance data is transposed in accordance with the transposition value set by the automatic-performance transposition setting device and a visual performance guide display based on the transposed automatic performance data is provided via a key display as an automatic performance process is advanced on a desired music piece. Human player depresses keys in accordance with the visual performance guide display so that tones corresponding to the depressed keys are generated. The transposition set via the automatic-performance transposition setting device does not act on the tones manually performed by the player's key depression operation, and only the transposition set via the general transposition setting device becomes effective on such manually-performed tones.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,798,427, issued to Suzuki et al., discloses a score of a given music piece is visually shown on a display. When a particular style of rendition is to be imparted to a desired note on the musical score, a user selects a desired one of style-of-rendition icons and designates a desired note location on the musical score as a pasting location of the selected style-of-rendition icon. Thus, the selected style-of-rendition icon is shown on the display in corresponding relation to the designated pasting location. The style-of-rendition icons are appropriately associated with sets of style-of-rendition parameters, so that performance data, i.e., tonal characteristics of the note, corresponding to the pasted location of the style-of-rendition icon is controlled, in accordance with the style-of-rendition parameters corresponding to the pasted style-of-rendition icon on the musical score, to thereby achieve a performance in the style of rendition corresponding to the pasted icon. On the display screen, at least one-row of style-of-rendition display areas are set in parallel relation to a musical score display area, and the pasted style-of-rendition icon is shown any one of the style-of-rendition display areas. Further, on the display screen, the style-of-rendition icon pasted to the desired note location is designated for editing of corresponding style-of-rendition information.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,977,335, issued to Georges et al, discloses a method for electronically generating a song wherein at least one parameter value representing a range of note pitch values associated with a musical instrument is accessed and program instructions are executed. One or more music composition algorithms are applied to musical data to generate a musical note data unit associated with the musical instrument. A musical note data unit is compared to the parameter value to determine whether the musical note data unit is within the range of note pitch values. In the event that the musical data unit is not within the range of note pitch values, the musical data unit is modified to be within the range of note pitch values. In the step of receiving user input associated with the musical instrument, the range of note pitch values may be modified in accordance with user input. In accordance with the claimed invention, methods for creating, modifying, interacting with and playing musical compositions may be provided.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 2004/0177745, by Kayama, Hiraku, discloses a plurality of types of additional attribute data included in note data, a selection section selects one or more of the plurality of types of additional attribute data. For a plurality of the note data, a display section displays pictorial figures or the like representative of the contents of the additional attribute data of the types selected by the selection section, in proximity to pictorial figures or the like representative of pitches and sounding periods of the note data. The display section also displays pictorial figures or the like indicative of the contents of the additional attribute data, at positions and in sizes corresponding to periods or timing when musical expressions or the like indicated by the additional attribute data are to be applied.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 2004/0094017, by Suzuki et al, discloses a performance data editing system is actualized by a computer system (or electronic musical instrument) which is equipped with a display and a mouse. The system initially provides a score window containing various types of execution icon layers onto which execution icons (representing musical symbols such as bend-up/down, grace-up/down, dynamics, glissando, tremolo) are attached and arranged in conformity with a progression of a musical tune on a screen of the display. Each of the layers is independently controlled in response to various commands such as display-on, small-scale display, display-off and vertical rearrangement. The system allows a user (or music editor) to select desired execution icons from an icon select palette that provides lists of execution icons which are registered in advance. In addition, the system also allows the user to modify parameters of a specific icon which is selected from among the execution icons attached onto the score window. That is, the user opens an icon modify window to change parameters of the specific icon with the mouse. Further, the system provides the user with a simple operation for deletion of execution-related data from performance data. That is, when the user performs drag-and-drop operations on a certain execution icon to move it outside of a prescribed display area (e.g., layer window) of the score window, the system automatically deletes the corresponding execution-related data from the performance data.
The inventions heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages which include: difficulty of use, especially for younger users; a high learning curve; failure to provide an intuitive interface; including obstacles that limit creative expression; and failing to provide sufficient guidance and/or skill enhancing effects.
What is needed is a method and/or system that solves one or more of the problems described herein and/or one or more problems that may come to the attention of one skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with this specification.